The government has announced a review of the way chemotherapy medications are funded and a $30 million one-off boost for cancer drugs in the May budget.

The review follows discussions with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia about appropriate subsidies for dispensing chemotherapy, after the key drug Docetaxel came off patent last year, allowing generic substitutes to enter the market.

Some chemotherapy providers had been using the inflated price the government had been paying, to cover the cost of delivering the treatment to patients.

But after a government decision to drop the price late last year, some providers said they wouldn't be able to afford to keep treating cancer patients without additional funding.

Ms Plibersek told reporters on Sunday at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney the cost to patients would remain unchanged.

She said concession patients would only ever pay $5.60 for a dose of chemotherapy medication, while general patients would continue to pay $36.10.

"The cost to patients has never varied and won't vary. This is about how much the government pays pharmacies for the medications they're delivering," she said.

Kathy Smith, of patient advocacy group Cancer Voices, said the previous pricing system was opaque and confusing.

"Consumers didn't know what was being paid, didn't know where the funding was going to come from for new medications, and at times didn't understand why these new medications couldn't be subsidised to help them when they had cancer and knew the drugs were available," she said.

"Hopefully at the end of this we'll have a publicly transparent and accountable system that can reassure cancer consumers that everything that can be done is being done."

into correct pricing is underway, the government has committed to an interim measure from July to December to increase the amount paid to pharmacists from $76.37 to just over $136 to prepare chemotherapy medications.

Some treatments might run to the tens of thousands of dollars, Ms Plibersek said.

"When you're subsidising new medications to that extent, it's important that we pay the right amount for old generic medications."

But opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said the December end date for the funding boost left patients in limbo.

"Vulnerable patients requiring these services do not need the stress of being caught in the middle of a stoush over funding that continues to drag on," he said in a statement.

CanSpeak chair Ian Roos welcomed the review and praised those pharmacists who protected patients from having their treatment disrupted by absorbing the funding shortfall of up to $1 million a week.

The Cancer Council's CEO Ian Olver said rural chemotherapy providers had been concerned they would have to close if government subsidies for the drugs continued to drop.

"We've got to make sure no patient is disadvantaged. This extra $60 will actually solve that problem while a proper pricing review is carried out," he said.

"It will be business as usual for cancer patients and we think that's a fantastic outcome."

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